Resistance of intrathoracic airways of healthy subjects during periodic flow.

The resistance and reactance of lower airways were measured as functions of the frequency and amplitude of periodic flow in three healthy subjects by relating flow, produced with a piston pump, to the difference between lateral tracheal and alveolar pressure, estimated plethysmorgraphically. Resistance consistently increased with frequency; reactance was small never exceeding resistance. This result cannot be explained by distortion of velocity profiles by inertia because, in long pipes, resistance increases only when inertial forces are large and reactance exceeds resistance. Theoretical analyses of airway resistance suggested that the results reflected inhomogeneity. In lung models which considered airway wall distensibility and inertial reactance of airways, resistance increased with frequency and inertial reactance was small. These results imply that in health, as in lung disease, resistance is determined by the distribution of resistance and reactance within the lung and is not simply the total resistance of the individual airways. As flow amplitude increased at constant frequency, flow-pressure relationships became distorted and resistance increased, due probably to motion of airway walls and further distortion of velocity profiles